ObudaBudaPest

Budapest is the capital and the largest city in Hungary.  It lies on the river Danube and became a single city in 1873 by the unification of 3 towns, Buda and Obuda on the west bank and Pest on the east bank.  It has an old underground railway system, second in the world after London.  It has 80 geothermal springs and the worlds largest thermal water cave system.

The first settlement was built before AD 1 by the Celts.  It was occupied by the Romans in AD 106 becoming Aquicum and Lower Pannonia.  The Ottomans pillaged it in the 16th century and it was occupied by the Turks for 140 years.  It has had a large Jewish community and was often called, “Judapest”.  Most of the Jews were killed during the Second World War by genocide.  However, the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenburg saved the lives of tens of thousands of Jews by giving them Swedish passports and taking them under his consular protection.

On 23 October 1956 there was a large peaceful demonstration demanding democratic changes.  The communist regime shot into the crowd so the Hungarian soldiers gave the crowd rifles and this became the start of the Hungarian revolution.  Soviet tanks and troops entered the country to crush the revolt leaving over 3000 dead.

There are 223 museums in Budapest and many spa's. It used to be called the "City of Spas" but today its mainly the older generation that use them except for the "Magic Bath" and Cinetrip" water disco's.  Young people tend to prefer the lidos which are open in the summer.

It is twinned with New York, Paris, Berlin, Istanbul and Beijing amongst others.  We arrive late Sunday night and are staying in the Hilton West End.  Not out normal class of hotel, but you have to slum it sometimes.

I feel that I need a holiday after my last few weekends.  I seem to have spent almost all of my spare time on this fraud case.  Since Daphne’s FA was arrested in January, I feel that there is only a short window before the investigation stops through lack of evidence on the police side.  I have been trying to use this window to write to Daphne’s investment companies stating the police case number to try to persuade them to cooperate more than they have.  Most have dried up getting bored and suspicious with my demands.

When Daphne died, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) were the overseeing body responsible for financial companies.  All complaints to them were directed through the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).  The FOS stopped their investigation into my case last year as they require both Trustee's to complain and the other Trustee is the FA's wife (if she exists).  Last year the FSA was replaced by 2 companies, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) being one of them.  This is my letter to them, I didn't even have an envelope big enough, I had to buy a jiffy bag especially.  The letter was 16 pages long and contained 164 enclosures, many of which were double sided.  All I would like is for the authorities to make an investigation and we will be home and dry.  At the moment all his actions regarding this case are unregulated.  I am hoping that the difference between these two companies lies in their name.

Everything went very smoothly with our transport.  We had the meet and greet take our car from the airport, the flight was on time, the shuttle dropped us outside our hotel and the driver carried the bags inside and gave them to the porter.  We have breakfast at the Hilton and as it is our anniversary, we booked the executive lounge for @20 extra a day.  This changes our breakfast into an executive one, gave us a corner, refurbished room, which is lovely and allows us into the executive lounge where we get afternoon tea and cakes, free wifi and complimentary drinks which include alcohol.  We got a complimentary bottle of champagne and fruit with an anniversary card in our room.  Shit, that makes it even worse that I didn't get Claire one.

We are right in amongst the action in the west end and our hotel is directly above underground railway station.  The good thing about stopping in cheap hotels normally, is that you get far more holidays than you would otherwise but the other thing is that you really appreciate a good one when you do stop in one.  Claire was very good to email them to tell them that it was our first time in Hungary and also our wedding anniversary and thats why they upgraded our room and we got the fruit etc.  She got it just right, if she had pushed it we may not have got anything, but she said just enough to make them think it was their idea.  As usual, I gave everyone a really good tip as soon as we arrived so the word gets around and we should get looked after for our entire stay.  At least it should solve our internet problem which is my normal worst thing to get sorted when we go away.

While we were waiting for our gate to open at the airport we stopped at the bar and someone had left a paper.  I had a quick look at the F1 news to find that Bernie has to go to court for bribery in April.  I rushed to Smith’s to get the latest F1 mag to read all the current news as I have heard nothing since last year.  I couldn't stop reading it all the way here; so much has been going on and only 2 weeks until the first 2014 GP at Melbourne.  I believe that Dan Robb is going.  I’m not jealous, I don't get jealous.  Well not much.  Have a great time Dan and congratulations on your wedding in June in Fiji.  You too Kylie!  Having a Barbie?

Got to go now, champagne to drink, fruit to eat and a lovely wife to entertain.